Diving at Maldives?

Hi there!

Would anyone have insight / experience from diving at Maldives?
Would it be best to dive at North or at South region, and how is
the marine life compared to e.g. Red sea, Thailand or Florida coast?
Any info would help us a lot to decide is it worth travelling that far.

Thanks in advance!

Br,
FinnWithFins

Hi Finns,

Maldives is totally different then Thailand, Florida or the Red Sea.
Main difference is the abundance of fish life, and (possibly) very strong currents !

North-South doesn't really matter but East or West does as the visibility changes with the monsoon and the plankton feeders relocate according to the monsoon as well !
In the West monsoon (May-Nov) the currents run from west to east so you will have nice visibility on the west side and mantarays on the east side. In the East monsoon it is the other way around. West monsoon can be very rough compared with the East monsoon (high season).

Best way to experience the Maldives is a live aboard as you are not bound to the sites 30 minutes from the resort but can move around the Maldives to where the big stuff is.

To give you an idea of the stuff you can encounter here a movie we made during our last trips in March and April 2011 (East monsoon):

YouTube - Safaris spring 2011

and October and November 2010 (West monsoon)

http://youtu.be/F2YJPcCrkas


Regards,
Bas

Popeye, I'll be going to Gafuu Alifu Atol (Hyatt, formerly Avila Villas, on Hadahaa island) in the south. How do you think it sits (not sure if it's considered east or west) with regard to the seasonality of weather - I'll go in very early November. Thanks!

depends on wether the island you are at, and more importantly the good dive sites are on the west or east side of the atoll. there are two major types of dive sites in the Maldives. 'Thilas' or submerged reefs and 'Kandu's or channels. the thilas are either in the middle of a channel or in the middle of the atoll. those at the middle of the atoll are generally less affected by the seasons. but the channals and thilas near them are located along the atoll rim so get affected. thilas tend to be more colorful with better coral growth. but diving a kandu on an incoming tide is a Maldives highlight. often reef sharks, eagle rays, tuna and trevally will be buzzing past.

early November is at the start of the northeast monsoon. so clearer water on the east side. but its just coming out of inter-monsoon period when it switches from the southwest monsoon. can be a good time for manta rays and possibly whale sharks but i dont know about frequency of sightings in Gaafu Alifu.

also it does matter a bit if its north or south after the bleaching in 1998. reefs in the south have better hard corals. the extreme north was affected most and has shown poor recovery.

Hi Finn,

I just returned yesterday from a 10 day trip to Maldives, did 24 dives almost all of which were at different dive sites.

Diving quality was "ok".
Advantages:
Vis was 6-30+ meters depending upon the plankton levels
Occasional mantas (1-2 meter in size) and turtles
Lovely weather, consistent light breeze with occasional rainshowers

Disadvantages:
Limited amount of healthy hard coral and very limited amount of soft coral
Very minimal macro life
Relatively low fish biodiversity compared to SE Asia or even Red Sea
Didn't see a single shark
Very expensive compared to SE Asia diving

I do most of my diving in SE Asia, and overall would recommend Philippines or Malaysia over Maldives. If one really wants to see mantas, maybe better to go to Mozambique, Yap, or other places where they are larger. I would guess that liveaboards can maybe go to better sites than I dove in Maldives, but don't know.

Stayed at Reethi Beach Resort. While it is nice for honeynooners, I definitely do not recommend this resort for experienced divers because while the staff are friendly and competent the management has some strange and very annoying rules:
1. All divers must have a snorkel when diving
2. No dive knives (which to me is important safety equipment especially since some of the reefs have fishing net fragments or fishing lines draped on them)
3. Second dive and follow-on dives of the day limited to 20-22 meters

With regard to funny rules, can the experts please tell me if the following are rules across Maldives (as the resort tells me in emails and on phone) or if it's not true, and the resort makes these rules themselves:

1. All dives limited to 60 minutes. My reply was that I have a computer, I breath efficiently... what if I do a dive to 10m, you're going to tell me I have to exit after 60 minutes with half a tank and hours remaining before deco? They say "yes", 60 minutes, Maldives rule". I don't believe it.

2. First dives limited to 30m, second dives less (as noted). My reply again is I have a computer (not that I want to go any deeper, we all know deep doesn't equate to better), but again, if my second dive is 8 hours after my first dive, why can't I go to 30m?

3. All divers exit together. My reply is that this is a deal killer - I'm not going to exit if some tourist uses all his air in 12 minutes, I need a dive op that will give me what I pay for, a real dive.


Thanks

Quality of the diving notwithstanding, I hear to many negative stories about Maldives government and never plan to dive there.

theduckguru:

Quality of the diving notwithstanding, I hear to many negative stories about Maldives government and never plan to dive there.

Click to expand...

Thank you for that information.

http://www.tourism.gov.mv/downloads/Maldives%20Recreational%20Diving%20Regulation.pdf

This is from 2003. I will ask someone if there is anything updated recently.

Along the lines of the (most) recent political activity, this pretty much sums it up believe it or not...

http://www.tourism.gov.mv/downloads/news/2011/Statement-tourists-5-2011.pdf